Ghana Health Service targets girls aged 9 to 14 years for HPV vaccination during 2026 African Vaccination Week

A high-level monitoring exercise was held in the Ledzokuku Municipality, where officials of the Ghana Health Service observed an ongoing one-week vaccination exercise targeting girls aged 9 to 14 years in selected schools as part of the 2026 African Vaccination Week.

The continent-wide initiative aims at promoting the life-saving benefits of vaccines and improving immunization coverage.

Background
Health officials engaged with school authorities, students and vaccination teams to ensure the smooth rollout of the programme while addressing concerns and reinforcing public confidence in the vaccine.

Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Prof Samuel Kaba Akoriyea led the high-level monitoring exercise with other officials of the service, the WHO and other key stakeholders.

‘‘Vaccination remains one of the most effective and cost-efficient interventions for reducing illnesses and deaths, especially among children under five years. Diseases such as polio, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, and others once claimed countless lives and left many children and adults disabled.

Today, thanks to vaccination, these diseases are either eliminated or no longer cause the devastation they once did. However, the sad reality is that whenever vaccination coverage declines, disease occurrence rises again.

This underscores the urgent need to continuously ensure that all eligible individuals are vaccinated, protecting both present and future generations. And the 2026 Africa Vaccination Week provides an opportunity to intensify routine immunisation services, including vaccines for children under five years and the newly introduced Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for girls aged 9–14 years.’’ He said.

The HPV vaccine is a critical tool in preventing cervical cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women in Ghana. By targeting girls at an early age, health authorities hope to significantly reduce future cases and improve long-term public health outcomes.

The monitoring exercise will also help identify gaps in vaccine delivery and strengthen strategies to reach more eligible girls across the country.

The 2026 African Vaccination Week is being commemorated under the theme, ‘For Every Generation, Vaccines Work’, emphasizing the importance of vaccines in preventing outbreaks and saving millions of lives.

Source: 3newsonline